How close are the Rockies to having the best pitching staff in baseball?

Baseball is all pitching. It's not surprising that the top seven teams by WAR for staff stating pitching in the game all made the playoffs and six advanced.

Two weekends ago the Houston Astros acquired former Cy Young candidate, and still 27-year-old with two years of team control, Gerrit Cole. This, of course, comes on the heels of the Astros trading for future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander late last season as the 'Stros took the Fall Classic.

Cole leaving the Pirates effects the Colorado Rockies in a small roundabout way, essentially taking one more team out of the National League playoff race as the club may look to rebuild. While the Pirates didn't finish too close to the Rockies in the end, the Bucs certainly could've made a September run and were a blip in Colorado's rearview mirror.

But Cole to the Pirates got me thinking; how good is this Astros rotation? Who else is on that elite level? And where do the Colorado Rockies rank in relation to those elite teams?

Last season the Rockies finished 11th by fWAR as a staff. The offseason isn't quite over yet particularly with Yahoo's top four starters on the market coming into the winter in Yu Darvish, Jake Arrieta, Alex Cobb and Lance Lynn still on the market. Those four are projected to have 3.6, 2.7, 1.7 and 1.3 WARs by Steamer respectively, which is significant.

The Los Angeles Dodgers still have the best rotation in baseball even without Darvish. When you have one of the best 10 pitchers of the live ball era it's hard to beat your rotation. Period. The Dodgers back Kershaw with a deep and talented foursome behind baseball's unequaled ace.